Stan Honey Named Rolex Yachtsman of the Year

January 9, 2011

Stan Honey of Palo Alto, previously nominated for the Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Award in 2006 as the Volvo Ocean Race winning navigator aboard ABN Amro One, was cited as “one of the most outstanding offshore sailors known world-wide” by a member of the award’s selection panel that recognized him as US Sailing's 2010 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year.

Stan Honey. ©2010 Claude Breton

Honey becomes the second American in the history of the award to receive the honor for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe. Cam Lewis won the Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Award in 1993 for winning the Jules Verne prize aboard Commodore Explorer with a record time of 79 days, six hours, 15 minutes and 56 seconds – a record which had been surpassed five subsequent times before Franck Cammas's trimaran Groupama 3, with Honey as navigator, set the latest benchmark. In 48 days, seven hours and 45 minutes, Groupama 3 made the fastest non-stop circumnavigation under sail in history and claimed the Trophée Jules Verne while eclipsing a record – by more than two days and eight hours – that had stood for five years.

Another member of the selection panel noted that Groupama 3 would not have broken the record without Honey correctly calling the weather window when they had to re-start after the first attempt was thwarted (a breakdown in the South Atlantic forced them to retire to fix the boat). “He did an extraordinary job getting the boat around the planet. This was the crowning achievement for a hell of a career,” said the panel member.

After sailing around the world, some might have expected Honey to spend some time on dry land, but in mid-June he was taking aim at another record, this time in the Newport Bermuda Race as navigator aboard Speedboat. “I've been navigator on Speedboat since she was built, so I carried on,” said Honey. “You get hooked on spending time at sea.” After leading the 183-boat fleet for most of the 635 nm race, Speedboat was the first boat to cross the line after racing for 59 hours.

“It is humbling to read through the list of previous winners," said Stan, upon hearing of the award. "As an American, it was an unexpected opportunity and honor to be asked to sail with the legendary all-French Groupama offshore multihull crew. Groupama 3’s success in the Jules Verne is a tribute to Franck Cammas’s leadership and the seamanship of the entire crew.” Besides being the only Anglophone onboard, Stan was the oldest crew member at age 54.

Stan graduated from Yale with a degree in Engineering and Applied Science, and from Stanford with a Masters in Science Electrical Engineering. In 1998, he co-founded Sportvision Inc., which evolved into the leading developer of live-tracking enhancements for sports TV broadcasts. Honey led the development of the yellow first-down line for televised football; the NASCAR racecar tracking and highlighting system; and the baseball K-Zone system, which highlights the pitch location and strike zone in televised baseball. He holds eight patents in navigational system design, 21 patents for TV special effects, is a member of the board of directors of KVH (a manufacturer of satellite communications and navigation sensors), and currently works for the America's Cup Event Authority on TV technology for the America's Cup. Stan's wife, Sally Lindsay Honey, is herself a two-time Yachtswoman of the Year (1972, ’73).

This year's Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, Anna Tunnicliffe of Plantation, FL, has now won three times in a row, a first time for that achievement. During 2010 Tunnicliffe raced in the Elliott 6 Metre to win US Sailing’s Rolex Miami OCR; placed second at Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères, France; and took third at Skandia Sail For Gold in Weymouth, England, site of the 2012 Olympic Regatta. She won the XII International Women’s Match Race Criterium in Calpe, Spain, sailed in Tom 28s, and was second at the Toyota International Match Race in Detroit, Michigan in Ultimate 20s. She picked up a bronze medal in the match racing event at Kieler Woche in Germany and also placed third in the BoatU.S. Santa Maria Cup in Annapolis, sailing in J/22s. Among her crew is Molly Vandemoer of Redwood City. For more, see http://about.ussailing.org/Awards/Rolex.htm.

- Jan Harley of US Sailing & norcalsailing.com